Turns out that sitting at home does a lot to keep people from sitting in traffic.
INRIX, the Kirkland, Wash.-based traffic technology and data company, has released its 2020 Global Traffic Scorecard and the COVID-19 pandemic — and stay-at-home orders — had a huge impact on traffic congestion and mobility trends in more than 1,000 cities across 50 countries.
Year-over-year savings: On average, American drivers lost just 26 hours stuck in traffic in 2020, down from 99 hours in 2019, saving $980 over last year. Nationally, drivers saved more than 3.4 billion hours, resulting in $51 billion in time savings compared to 2019. “Hours lost in congestion” is the total number of hours lost during peak commute periods compared to free-flow conditions.
Seattle numbers: Seattle ranked 15th among the most congested urban areas in the U.S., with 25 hours lost to congestion — a 67% improvement compared to 2019. Travel to downtown fell by 50% and collisions dropped 35%. In the early days of the pandemic last year, INRIX reported how average speeds on major roadways in the Seattle region were more than 10 mph faster than normal on the first full workday after Microsoft, Amazon and other major companies instituted work-from-home policies amid the novel coronavirus outbreak.
25 most congested urban areas in U.S.: New York topped the list of most congested U.S. cities. Its 100 hours lost to congestion was still better than cities such as Bogota, Columbia, (133 hours lost) and Bucharest, Romania (134 hours).
Portland’s deserted downtown: The city saw the largest drop (-66%) in trips to downtown since the pandemic and related restrictions took hold, followed by San Francisco (-64%), Washington, D.C. (-60%), Detroit (-59%) and Boston (-56%). Nationwide, the largest metros saw an average decline of 44% in city center trips.
The takeaways: INRIX transportation analyst Bob Pishue says COVID-19 has completely transformed when, where and how people move.
- “Government restrictions and the continued spread of the virus led to shifts in travel behavior seemingly overnight. Morning commutes in cities across the world went without delay as people reduced auto and transit travel to offices, schools, shopping centers and other public spaces.”
- “Although travel to downtowns has been the most affected by the spread of the virus and subsequent government restrictions, the reduction in congestion has resulted in quicker commutes for essential workers, more reliable deliveries and streamlined freight movement, all of which are vital to the economy. We expect downtown trips will continue to lag suburban and rural travel through 2021.”
Go deeper: The Washington State Department of Transportation has a “Multimodal Transportation System Performance Dashboard” for monitoring data related to travel on highways, rail, ferries and transit.
